Coronavirus Vaccination
Vaccines for all Americans before Aug, says Biden
Federal law invoked to speed up production of more vaccine doses by drug companies
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People waiting for their turn to be inoculated in Los Angeles. The vaccination roll-out in the US has been hit by storms that blanketed much of the nation in snow and ice. Communities are now uncertain when the next doses will arrive and appointments have been cancelled by the thousands.
PHOTO: AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE
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MILWAUKEE/WASHINGTON • US President Joe Biden has said that all Americans will have access to Covid-19 vaccines before August.
He added that Moderna and Pfizer agreed to sell more doses of their coronavirus vaccines to the United States faster than planned after he invoked federal law that could force their production.
Mr Biden has previously predicted that vaccines might be available to all by spring.
But the White House has recently toned down its optimism, citing difficulties both with availability and ability to deliver them.
Asked when all Americans would be inoculated, he told a CNN town-hall meeting with members of the public on Tuesday: "By the end of July this year."
"By the end of July we'll have 600 million doses, enough to vaccinate every American," he noted.
Mr Biden said he wanted a faster return of children to schools and that he backs vaccinations for teachers. The authorities should "move them up in the hierarchy".
Asked at the meeting when life would get back to normal, Mr Biden added "by next Christmas, we'll be in a very different circumstance".
"A year from now, I think that there'll be significantly fewer people who have to be socially distanced, have to wear a mask," Mr Biden said, adding that he could not be sure.
The government announced last week that Moderna and Pfizer would deliver 300 million doses of each of their vaccines to the US by the end of July, enough to inoculate all American adults.
"We got them to move up time because we used the National Defence Act to be able to help the manufacturing piece of it, to get more equipment," Mr Biden said at the town-hall event in Milwaukee.
He appeared to be referring to the Defence Production Act, a law that allows the government to nationalise commercial production in emergencies.
The White House announced earlier on Tuesday that vaccine shipments to states would rise next week to 13.5 million, from 11 million, while shipments going to pharmacies would double to two million.
However, White House officials warned governors during a call on Tuesday that inclement weather could slow deliveries over the next few days.
Meanwhile, the storms that blanketed much of the US in snow and ice have paralysed the Covid-19 vaccination campaign, with communities unclear when the next doses will arrive and appointments cancelled by the thousands.
In Chicago, all testing and vaccination sites were shut and health officials said they expected delays in vaccine shipments for a few days.
Power outages created a temporary crisis in Houston in Texas when a backup generator failed and threatened to spoil more than 8,000 doses of the Moderna vaccine.
Rice University and other Houston institutions used the vaccines to inoculate students to prevent the drug from going to waste.
The storm's effects even cascaded into parts of the country where few flakes fell at all.
The vaccine delays are a setback for a nation that had been administering about 1.7 million doses daily, twice the pace of a month ago, according to the Bloomberg Vaccine Tracker.
Now, clinics that reopen will have to reschedule thousands of appointments for patients without bumping those already in line and some fear clinics will shut out of fear of snow.
"I don't think we should take days off because of the weather," said senior scholar Amesh Adalja at the Johns Hopkins University Centre for Health Security who studies pandemic preparedness.
AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE, BLOOMBERG
